pandora//h.s

three

I oddly felt as if there was something wrong.

Oddly because nothing had ever felt as strange as this.

There was a sudden shift in the atmosphere of our bedroom, my sister was gone. That made me open my eyes suspiciously.

The men had already left, and it felt like four in the morning, maybe more. I couldn't tell.

We were asleep, well at least I was, my sister was nowhere to be seen.

A man stood over me with a manic look on his eyes, and my first reflex was to scream as loud as I could.

There was a loud smack, the man's hand over my mouth and nose. Someone was covering and muffling all my sounds.

A cold pressure fell on my neck which I recognized as a knife. The sudden, more dangerous, threat made me stop screaming immediately.

"Be quiet." A Male voice whispered, "If you scream when I take my hand off your mouth, remind yourself you have a knife to your throat."

In my mind, I was nodding frantically, I did not want to cut myself on the knife just yet.

Slowly this person's hand was lifted off my face and the knife followed a long minute afterwards.

"Where's my Sister? My father?" I inquired with a hoarse voice, still weak from sleep and the initial shock.

"Your sister was taken. Your father is in the living room, or outside I don't know." The man replied, "You are to come with me and my associates."

"Why?" This wasn't the time to ask questions, christ this wasn't good.

"This is not the time to ask questions." He repeated my words back to me, "Because I said so. Do you not understand why we are here, Hera?"

I shook my head, Of course not.

I'm just a clueless 19 year old girl who was raised away from toxic society.

"Your father broke the treaty."

"What treaty?" There were very clearly plenty of gaps in this story for me, seeing as I had no insight into what treaty, who these people were and what they were doing with me and my sister.

"So you really don't know anything?" He gave me a confused glance. Studying my face longer than I was comfortable with.

"I have no clue as to what you are trying to say. I certainly don't know about a treaty." I looked away, his presence was too overwhelming. He seemed like he was a man with power.

"I'll explain in the car. Lexus! Take Narcissus to the Van. Make sure Hestia is taken care of, she's merely a child, a very small weak one. Our job is not to harm them." the man said, "Follow me, Dear."

Although he said he was not to harm us, I still had my doubts, but I didn't feel weary like i had been with my father's friends. These were different people.

"I'm not taking a single step without an explanation." I stood my ground, My mind hazy. Why were they taking me?

"It is not safe, child." the man smiled, "My name is Rafiel. I'll take you to your escort. If you really don't know anything there is no point in harming you. Follow me, please, I promise you will get your explanations as soon as we leave Italy."

"What about my sister?" I couldn't leave my sister.

"I've said she is taken care of, now come."

"Taken care of? As in dead?"

"No, you silly girl. We're not supposed to harm you, I promise."

Promise?

The useless conversation eventually ended with me following him out the house. There was a black range rover going down the road on the very edge of the cliff to the sea, and another one parked, the windows fogged from the cold night air.